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Documenta 7: A Dictionary of Received IdeasAuthor(s): Benjamin H. D. BuchlohSource: October, Vol. 22 (Autumn, 1982), pp. 104-126Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778366.

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Documenta 7: A DictionaryofReceived deas

BENJAMIN H. D. BUCHLOH

AbsencesIn bothits nclusionsand omissions,theselectionpolicyforDocumenta 7constituted symptomatic isplay ofrepressivetolerance,an intensified ormof amnesia withregardto real historical onditions. t is notso mucha questionoftheabsence of ndividual artists althoughone can certainly peculate aboutthe omissionofpoliticalartists uch as VictorBurgin,Darcy Lange, and SteveWillatsfrom heotherwisevirtually omplete repetition fexhibitors hat RudiFuchs, Documenta's ArtisticDirector, had shown at his home base at theStedelijkvan Abbemuseum in Eindhoven). It is, rather,the absence of per-spective,methodologicalor historical-not to mention critical or political-

that gave the show its fundamental sense of pompous and pretentiousob-solescence. It is what one mighthave found at a turn-of-the-centuryalon,when thegreedy nxiety f a ruling lass tomaintain tspositiondimmed criticalperception.This absence ofperspectivewas, ofcourse,rationalized as liberalism,pre-tending, s itdid, to offerbsolutefreedom o the workof artunderstood as anautonomous, ahistoricalentity, productof the artist een as the"lastpracti-tionerofdistinct ndividuality."1 hus, a perspectivewhichwould attempt oencompass the most productive nvestigations fthe function fvisual repre-sentationwithincontemporary ulture was replaced by a desperateattempt oreestablishthe hegemonyof esoteric,elitistmodernisthigh culture. And thisoccurs ust at that momentwhen the inadequacy ofthis framework as beenmade most apparent, having become the centralobject ofcontestation n arthistory, riticaltheory, emiology,and feminist heory like.The fifthnd most important n the series ofDocumenta exhibitions-organized by Harald Szeemann in 1972- had at least begun to question ageneralfocuson highart. Therefore,tenyears ater,one mighthave expectedfrom team ofhighlyqualified curators2 slightlymore complex organizing1. R. H. Fuchs, catalogue preface in Documenta , Kassel, 1982, vol. 1, p. XV.2. The team consisted of an ArtisticDirector, Rudi Fuchs, Director of the Stedelijk vanAbbemuseum, Eindhoven; and an Artistic ommitteecomposed ofCoosje van Bruggen, formerly

MichaelAsher.Proposal or officialoster orDocumenta . 1982.

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DKOACSUSM EE LN 1T 9A 872



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principlethan that ofthe simple agglomerationofthemost recentsamples ofmarket-orientedvant-garde products.Adorno

In 1959, some tenyears afterhis returnfrom xile in America, the phi-losopherT. W. Adornoencountered or hefirstime,atthesecondDocumenta,the work ofJacksonPollock. For him, as forso manyothervisitors o theex-hibition,that workbecame and remained a centralpointofreference orcon-temporaryvisual thinking.More than twentyyears later at Documenta 7,American criticshave converted heveinsofAdorno'saesthetic hought evenwhilehis major work,Aesthetischeheorie,emainsuntranslated ntoEnglish-intoa mine fromwhich to extract vocabularyofemptyradicalism that s in-formedby neither the historical specificity or the political acumen of itsmodel. Rather,Adorno simplyprovidesthemwith a jargon of ustification orthe reemergenceof irrationalismn contemporaryGerman painting.

AsherMichael Asher'scontribution oDocumenta looked as if tscensorshiphadbeen merelythe productofcircumstance. His proposal: the reconstructionf

thewingwalls from he groundfloorofHaus Esters in Krefeld,Germany (aprivate residence designed and constructedby Mies van der Rohe in 1931,recently estored ofunction s a museum withone of thecurators fDocumenta7 as itsdirector).The walls of Asher's reconstructionwere intendedto be in-stalledaccordingto their riginalfloor lan on thesecond floor f theOrangerieat Kassel and to function here as regulardisplaysurfaces n the contextof theexhibition. This proposal was accepted by the curatorial committee severalmonths beforethe opening of the show, and constructionhad begun whenAsher visitedKassel in May. With thewalls nearing completion,however,thecuratorsmustfinally ave understoodthe implicationsofthework. Construc-tion of the walls was abandoned before the addition of the dark stained doorframes nd baseboards thatMies's designhad providedfortheframing fthestarkwhite walls of thehome. The framedobjectsto be displayedon thewallswould have suffered in the opinion of the curators fromthe suggestionofthe architectural onditionsoftheprivatehome. As though Cindy Sherman'sfashionplates depictingthecynicalrecapitulationoftheritualsoffemalesub-missivenesscould be affected y baseboards.

Curator, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Germano Celant, Contributing Editor, Artforum;Johannes Gachnang, formerlyDirector, Kunsthalle, Bern; and Gerhard Storck, Director,Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld.



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A DictionaryfReceiveddeas 107

BroodthaersIf onlywhatJohn Russell wrote in the New YorkTimeshad been true:"Documenta 7 could indeed be said to be under the benign and posthumousaegis ofBroodthaers."Marcel Broodthaers'sworkwas the sole exceptionto theexhibition'sproviso thatnothingbe included if it dated frommore than twoyearsback. (Presumablythisrigorousbut pointless mpositionwas establishedas a selection riterion ythecurators oguaranteethecurrency ftheexhibits.)Broodthaers's euvre sbeginning oemergeas one ofthemostcomplexaestheticinvestigations f the conditionsofartisticproductionand receptionwithintheframework f modernism nd its social institution,he museum. As suchitem-

bodies the truepostmodernpracticeofthe 1970s. In theirrandom uxtapositionofmutually xclusiveaestheticpositions,thecuratorsmaywellhave attemptedto imitate certainaspects ofBroodthaers'swork. But forBroodthaershimself,this notion of aestheticparadox did not arise fromcompromisedthinking rlackofhistorical ommitment,rfrom heused artdealer'sattitude hat nythinggoes. On thecontrary,when,in 1972, Broodthaers ommissioned othGerhardRichterand Georg Baselitz to paint paintingsof eagles forhis finalmuseumfiction, he Museum fEagles,his purposewas not to effect liberal reconcilia-tion of contradictionsn order to affirm heexistingpowerstructure, ut ratherto intensify he dialectical opposition of the two approaches, to sharpen theviewers' awareness of the framing onditionswithinwhichboth practicesarecontained.

Curatorial reativityA secondworkbyAsher,one thathad been commissioned orDocumenta,was dropped withoutexplanation. This was to have been a posterfortheex-hibition,for whichAsher used the figuresrepresentingmale and female un-employedworkers,whichhad been designedin theearly1930sbytheCologneprogressivistrtistGerd Arntz for he sotype anguage developedbytheVien-nese sociologistOtto Neurath. The posterimplicitly uestioned thehistoricaladequacy of an internationalart exhibitioncosting seven million Deutsch-marks at a moment of considerable social instability nd economic crisis.Paradoxically, Asher'sproposal was replaced by a design thattheexhibition'scuratorsculled from n earlier workbyhimfor he Art nstitute fChicago, inwhich he had integrated sculpturebyJean-AntoineHoudon into his installa-tion. Misunderstood,Asher's idea returned, nverted, n theirdesign fortheofficialposter and postcard forDocumenta 7, which used a photographofJohann August Nahl's neoclassical portraitof the Landgrave Ludwig II, areference o the past and its inherent uthority.33. That WalterNikkels's esignforDocumentareferredpecificallyoAsher'sChicago n-



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MarcelBroodthaers.ecor. 1975. (Detail ofreconstructednstallationtDocumenta .)

Artists an, in fact,be excellentdesigners,especiallyat a historicalmo-mentwhen ornamentand decoration are among the only practicestheyareallowed to reactivate.But the curatoras poet and thedesigneras artist inso-faras thecurators nd designersofDocumenta 7 triedtheirhands at it4- onlyconstituted leaden additionto the verbal and visual ballast that has accumu-lated within he ideological space ofculture.

DcorDecor-A Conquest as the titleof Marcel Broodthaers's nstallation t theICA in London in 1975. This, his last major installationwork,was recon-structed nder thesupervision fhis widow atDocumenta 7,where tfunctioned

as an allegoricalanchor. The work consistedof two main sections.One was anarrangement f awn furniture,ncluding table on which a puzzle ofthe Bat-tle ofWaterloo was scattered,accompanied by a collectionof contemporarymachineguns. The otherwas an awe-inspiringrsenal ofhistorical annons in-terspersedwitheighteenth-centuryurniturend candelabra, a taxidermist'sboa constrictor, alm trees,and redcarpets.Broodthaers's ableaux orts- they

stallation s evidenced in theDocumenta catalogue, vol. 2, p. VIII, wherethedesign is picturedin conjunctionwith two photographsof theArt Institute's culptureofGeorge Washington byHoudon, one in itsold location at themuseum's entrance,the second showing tsrelocationbyAsher in the eighteenth-centuryallery.4. See, for xample, thestatement yWalterNikkels,thedesignerof theexhibition, nwhichhe states:"The placementofthewalls withinthe classicisticorderof the spaces can be seen as anegative sculpture" Documenta catalogue, vol. 2, p. XXXIX).



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functionas hybrids of the contemporarynaturemortend historical tableauvivant-were always conceived for and placed within the particular circum-stancesand specificmomentsof an exhibition nd an institution. icor-A Con-quest riginallyprovidedthe settingforthe shootingofBroodthaers's ast film,La BatailledeWaterloo, hichcombines shotstaken from hewindow of theICAoftheTrooping oftheColors on Pall Mall, in celebrationof theQueen's birth-day, withfootageof a woman trying opiece together hepuzzle of the Battle ofWaterloo taken in the installation tself. t is impossibleto verifywhether hefilm temmedfrom he installation,or the installation served as a pretextforthefilm, nd itwas thereforenlyappropriatethatLa Bataille e Waterlooad itsGerman premiereduringtheopening ofDocumenta 7. We can restassured,however,that Broodthaerswould have proposed an entirely ifferent ork forthe context f thisexhibition,which makes itall the moreastonishing hatDecorcould unravel the secret fatalityof the historical moment within whichDocumenta 7 seemed to rejoice.Discoveries

It mightbe expectedthat one of thefunctions fan exhibition fcontem-poraryarton the scale ofDocumenta (one of its curatorscompared it, in thecatalogue, to theOlympicGames) would be discovery:ofnewperspectives ndunknown artists,of unrecognized contextsand relationshipswithinvariousdisciplines,of new methodologicalapproaches, as well as of rediscoveriesofartistswhose worksdeserve reevaluation. In 1972 Documenta 5 disclosed awhole range of such new perspectives,and introducednew work by youngartists f considerableconsequence for hedefinition fartpractice n theyearsto come. Moreover, itopened the exhibitionto a notionofvisual culturethatthrew ntothe sharpest possible relief heobsolescent solationofautonomoushigh culture. Ten years later Documenta 7 closed down that investigation nfavorof a conservativerealignmentofthe Beaux-Artscategoriesand a meth-odological agnosticism which undoubtedly sees itself as postmodern. Itsreaffirmationotonlyemphasizes thehegemonyofpaintingand sculpture,butalso reestablishes hesupremacyof themuseum as thesocial institutionwithinwhichthe discourseofhighartoriginates nd must remain. Documenta 7 pro-claimed the individualityof the artist and the autonomyof artisticpractice.(Fuchs's statement"Modern art does not have a history- it is an experi-ment"5 is one that we might ast have read around 1955 in a commercialgal-lery'sbrochurepromotingFrenchtachism.) It obviouslydoes not consider thecurrenthistoricalframeworknd how thatmighthave determined hecurators'

5. R. H. Fuchs, "I Want to Make an Opera out of Works of Art," interviewby HeinerStachelhaus, Das Kunstwerk,une 1982, pp. 4-5.



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presentenchantmentwith conservativecliches. The painted expression,thatpredictable stereotype hat stared out fromeverysecond wall surface of theshow,promisedaestheticdiscoveries nd adventuresofthekind one expectstoparade down a fashion-show unway: too shallow and breathlessto be said tobe bathed in ideology,theycan onlybe said to be soaked in Zeitgeist.

FashionModaThe Fashion Moda pavilion at Documenta, transplantedfrom heSouthBronx to itstemporary igh-art ettingn the Fridericianum'sEnglishgarden,was one ofthefew ourageouscuratorial hoices.Through itspetty-commodityprogram,where artists' chatchkisnd souvenirsweretradedoverthecounter,the hidden orderofexchangevalue underlying ocumenta's high-art retenseswas revealed. One would hate to think,however,that thismightbe FashionModa's finaldestinationeven thoughthe name does suggest he ultimate oca-tionof theenterprise).JennyHolzer, who, in collaboration with StefanEins,was responsibleforbringing he Fashion Moda paviliontoDocumenta, excelsinbothunmasking deology twork nlanguage and masking rt as businesstoachieve a wide dissemination f hertexts- printed n everythingrom -shirtstofacades. But when theworkenters r leaves thegallery ntheform fbronzeplaques, small change indeed seems to have compromisedHolzer's originalradicalism.

FashionModa display fT-shirtsy, mong thers,Christie upp andJohnFekner.Shown nfront fDaniel Buren'swork n situ t theOrangerie.)



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Daniel Buren.Les Guirlandes. 1982. (Photo-souvenir:Daniel Buren.)



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GarlandsDaniel Buren's work,Les Guirlandes,ntroduced sound and motion intoDocumenta 7, whichwas givenoverto painting's ilence and stasis in spiteofits pretenseof emotional turbulence). Togetherwiththe sound, the sense ofhistoricitynd temporal ontinuityf Buren's workcontradicted heexhibition'sgeneral claim for the universality nd timelessnessofcontemporary estheticproduction.A collectionofmusical samples- rangingfromLully and Philidonl'Ain6 throughBach, Purcell, Mozart, Beethoven, and Verdi, to Offenbachand ScottJoplin- were broadcast over the argefield eading thevisitors o theMuseum Fridericianum.These musical offerings ereregularlynterruptedy

a litanyofcolor names recited nfourteenanguages. In thestrict hronology fthe musical samples, as well as in the abstract administrative istingofcolorterms,a parodic framework fhistoricizationwas proposed as a counterpointto theexhibition's-- and thecurators'--concerted ffortsooverride heviewers'discoveryof the real historical onditionsof aestheticpracticeby inspiring weand dignity.Pennants ofBuren's recognizablecolored and whitestripeswerestretched bove the fieldon the same poles thatcarried the oudspeakers,com-plementing he musical sideshow withan ambience ofgaudiness appropriate oa fun fairor thegrandopeningofa gas station.This, in open confrontationothe discretion and rigorof the newlyconstructedwhite wall systemthat hadbeen installed ntheeighteenth-centuryuseum for hedisplayofobjects.Thesuccessful ynthesis fall theseelements n Buren's workprobablyaccountsforthe attemptby the majorityofthe show's curators to prevent ts installation(althoughtheyfinally elented t the astminute)since themajority f viewersmighthave perceived the work as a decoration installed by the exhibition'sorganizersto celebratethe inaugurationof their show.

HaackeHans Haacke's two-partnstallation,Oelgemaelde-HommageMarcelBrood-thaers1982), was neitherverywell placed withinthe exhibitionnor verywellreceived. Benevolent criticsdeemed itnecessaryto defendBroodthaers'sworkagainst tsgenuinehistorical nd politicalpotential s thatpotentialwas revealedin Haacke's timelyhomage. The juxtapositionofthemeticulously aintedpor-trait fReagan (Haacke's own accomplishment)witha mural-sizedphotographof an antiwardemonstration n the occasion ofReagan's visit to the Germancapital, broughttoo many aspects of the interdependenceof aesthetic andpoliticalmatters nto focustoplease thoseconservative riticswho would preferto neutralize Broodthaers'swork within an aesthetic nebulosity. Haacke'sreferencewas to an installationby Broodthaers at Documenta 5 in which in-

scriptions ontainedwithin black square were painted on thefloor.Such in-scriptions s "rever,peindre"were replaced halfwaythroughthe exhibition'sdurationby "privateproperty."The elements of traditional museum exhibi-



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.........I.I.I..I.

i~iiii'>1 i. ..7 ..4 ~iiiiiiiiii

Hans Haacke. Oelgemaelde - Hommage 'a MarcelBroodthaers. 1982.

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tions that demarcate the threshold between life and high art- stanchions,velvet ropes, carpets frequentlyused by Broodthaers in his installations,returned n Haacke's workas the means ofbracketing he two apparently n-compatibleelementsofhiswork,thepaintingofthe eader and thephotographof the crowd. But the particular depiction in Haacke's painting and itsmock-dignified resentationgenerateddiscomfortwithin the ambience of anexhibitionwhere the dignity f both art and itsmanner ofpresentationweredeclared primary oncerns of the curators Fuchs at one pointmentionedthathe would installcarpets n whathad once been a guttedbuilding). IfHaacke'sworkonce again broke theunspokenrule that art can be critical s long as it isdiscreet a rulethat Broodthaershad often mphasized inworkthatpointedtoritualsofdiscretion--thenitrespondedto a historical ituation nd a particularinstance whereBroodthaers's trategieshad themselvesbeen acculturatedandfalsified ythe curators.The repeateddevaluationofthesealreadydevaluatedstrategieswas, then,seenbyHaacke as theonlymeansbywhichtopay homageto the inherentpoliticalradicalismof their author.Kassel

Everyfouror fiveyears, a small provincialcity n West Germany(com-parable in size, climate, and location within the country o Akron,Ohio) re-quests thepleasure of the international rtworld'scompany. In theeighteenthcentury,Kassel was the glamourous residence of the aristocracyof Hesse,patronsofone of thefirstmuseumbuildingsofEurope (1769-79), theMuseumFridericianum.Hesse was, at thetime,a feudalstate notoriousfor herigidityof its army. It was the state where one of the most innovative German play-wrights, Georg Biichner, was born, prosecuted, and imprisoned after thefailureof the revolution n the earlynineteenth entury. n the 1930s Kasselserved as one of Hitler's most important mmunitiondepots, a centralpointconnectingBerlin,capital of theReich, with ts western nd southernregions.Destroyed by the Allies in the final phase of World War II, Kassel wasreconstructed n a rush during the economic miracle to become one of theugliestcities westofSiberia, a citywhereVolkswagens are now assembled byTurkish,Spanish, and Italian hands. The blandness of thearchitectures onlyexceededbythe blandnessof the nhabitants,who seem to have eatentheirwayfrom heirFascistpast to theirneo-capitalistpresent.The populationof Kasselcould not care less about Documenta and international ontemporary rt, ustas the international rt world could not care less about the people of the cityand statethatsponsorsthemostexpensiveof artexhibitions.But the250,000to 450,000 visitorsthat the exhibitionattractsduring the 100 days of its in-stallation ome from ll over thecountry s well as fromneighboring ountries,excluding,ofcourse, thoseneighbors o theeast, theEast Germans. Unlike itsvisitsto theVenice or Paris biennals, where the food is good and the monu-



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ments are plenty, the international art world dreads going to Kassel, yetis always eager to participate, forDocumenta- both the exhibitionand itstradition- is an ideological institutionwhere the aesthetic stock ofthepresentday is evaluated and tested.Mysticism,ostmodern

In one of his many pronouncementson Documenta artists,Rudi Fuchsdeclared Lawrence Weiner a mysticand paired him withJannis Kounellis,whom he wished to be seen as Weiner's Greco-Italian counterpart.Six yearsearlier,Fuchs had described Weiner's work n thecatalogue ofhis exhibition ttheVan Abbemuseum:Is thiswork henvisual art? That depends on use (on whatone wantsor expects to do withit); also it depends on how a notationcan beread. The use of anguage conformsnnoway to theuse of anguagewithinpoetry.Designation of theworkas visual art is a question ofutility nly. (There is no reason to name it differently.)

The work is pure praxis. It is not carried by an aesthetictheory;there s ust a sense ofutility. mportant s that t entersthe culture- not as aesthetic satisfactionbut as a methodologyto deal withmaterial culture.6If thisdescriptiondoes not correspondto our notion ofmysticism,tneverthe-less helps us understandthe recourse to mysticism hatpervades thecataloguerhetoric and installationstrategiesof the presentexhibition. In this contextmysticism s called up to reconcile the blatant contradictionswithincurrentaestheticpractice, and is required to cover over the systematicbreakdownofliberalthought nd itspresent onversion ooutright eaction.To be committedintellectuallyo a programofbourgeois enlightenmentnd rationalprogress slong as theexpanding economyallows for t,but to fallback into a swampof r-rationalismwhen economic crisisrequiresa legitimation fhierarchicalorderand privilege this is the historicalconstellation that generatesthe perverseembrace and willful ombinationofmutually xclusive aestheticpracticesform-ing the foundation of Fuchs's installation. The postmodern coexistence ofaestheticcontradictions retendsto assure and defend thecontinuedexistenceofa sublimehighcultureagainst thevulgar forcesof"themedia and politics,"as Fuchs puts it. (Whose media? Whose politics?)Certainly n the 1930s one could have combined a paintingbyMondrianand a flower till ifeby Vlaminck (theyhad once been historically nd geo-6. R. H. Fuchs, LawrenceWeiner, indhoven, Van Abbemuseum, 1976, pp. 19-20.



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graphicallyclose enough to be thoughtof as artists of the same regionwho"spokethe same dialect") in the same way that Fuchs combined, for xample,thework of Hans Haacke with the paintingsof a lost local talentcalledJ6rgImmendorf.But it takesa particularurgencyformystificationo claim for uchjuxtapositions--ofeminentlyrelevantartisticpractice,on the one hand, andthecurrent evivalof trivialpicturemaking,on the other- thattheyrepresentthe "battleof the century."'With this nflatedphrase, Fuchs refers o anothersuch combination,that ofAndyWarhol and a painterfrom he ruralenviron-ment ofsouthernGermany bythe name of AnselmKiefer,whouses straw ndtar in his paintingsto give tangible formto his desire to returnto primarymatters.

Opera ndOperatorToo numerous and too frequently uoted fromhis notorious letter n-vitingartists o participate n Documenta 7 are the confessionsof theArtisticDirector's creative ambitions to make the exhibition nto anythingother thanan exhibition a poem called Le Bateau vre, story, fairy ale, or, ultimately,an opera: "I understandmyself o be a composer. I willmake an opera out ofworks ofart,paintings,and objects. ."...- Such explicitmanipulationstandsin overt contradictionto Fuchs's professedconcern to presentthe artworks

without n imposition fhistorical r stylistic ategories, s immaculate estheticconceptions.This reveals the extentto whichthe administration nd distribu-tion of the ndividualizedproductsof thecontemporary vant-gardepartakesofthe conditionsof the culture industry,whichmust constantlymythifyts ac-tivities n order to maintain its credibility.Or-its dialectical complement-the extentto whichindustrymustemploytheclichesof ndividualismand thecult ofpersonality s a means ofselling tsproductsat a time whengenuinein-dividuality s most threatened.No wonder,then,that thedesireforpoetry x-pressed by high culture'stop manager (the three-year alary ofDocumenta'sArtisticDirector was 365,000.00 DM) and theprivateconfessionsofthe cor-porate entrepreneur oincide almost word forword. Thus, Ralph Lauren:I'm inspired by America. . . . When I do the shows, it's all adream. . . . There's a vibration 'm expressing,as if I'm a writer.When that model came down therunway n thepatchwork kirt ndthepictorial weaterwiththe schooland the kids and the treesacrossthefront, nd Neil Diamond was singing Hang onto the Dream"-that was everything believe in, everything am.9

7. Fuchs, "I Want to Make an Opera."8. Ibid.9. Jesse Kornbluth,"Ralph Lauren: Living the Dream," Vogue,August 1982, p. 305.



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Parsifal's ropsParadoxicallyDocumenta 7, whose declared goal was torestoredignity othe visual artsand to defendhighcultureagainst the incursionsof themedia,opened with the German premiereof Syberberg'sParsifal.The film'sFrenchproducers,with theirbusinessmen'ssense of what is proper,had turned downFuchs'splea for he worldpremiere,thusfrustratinghe conservative esthete'sattemptat a media coup for Documenta. Nevertheless, the filmdirector'spatheticdesire to be an artistand the exhibitiondirector's mbition to par-ticipate n theZeitgeiston a grand scale did findtheirmeetingground: in thebasement of the Fridericianum. There the monumental kitschof Parsifal's

gigantic plaster props (Wagner's head, Hitler's hand) loomed in the dark(where bettermightthe exhibition'srepresseddesires be displayed?). In themoviemaker's bsession to be takenseriously s an artist,while also cashinginon the media's current success at toyingwith fascism under the guise ofhistorical ntrospection;n theexhibitiondirector's eed to show these emblemsofthe fashionabletastefortheprohibited,togetherwith his wish to make thehistorically nacceptable tasteful- in these the collapse of modernist estheticcriteria hatpervaded theexhibition s a wholerevealed its mplicationsfor hefuture: he conflict etweenthe forms fmass culture whichappear as seam-less totalitieswithin which the individual subject is constituted and theaestheticpracticesof individual artists whichopen up a dimensionofcriticalnegativity cannot be resolved by the social institutionswhich support andcontainaesthetic ractice. They lack the critical esistance, etalone thepoliticalconsciousness,and underthepressureof crisiswillyieldtowhatever ystem frepresentation nd method of distribution s necessary forthe ideologicallyorganized dismantlingof modernism.

Sculpture, utdoorsWithDocumenta 7'srenewedfaithn the nstitutionfthemuseum-bothits mode of display and the ideology it imposes sculptureappears to haveentered historical ul-de-sac.This is particularly hecase for hatworkwhich,partiallymotivatedby a critiqueofthediscreteobject, extended its investiga-tionsto an architectural imension.Eitherbyexcludingcertainsculptors rbypresenting heirwork n an incoherentmanner Richard Serrawas, for xam-ple, represented nlybya drawing),thecuratorsmade itappear that culpturalactivityhad witheredto uttermarginality.One has only to remembertheextraordinary culptureexhibitionsorganized by Germano Celant-"Ambi-ente Arte"at the 1976 Venice Biennale-and Kaspar Koenig-"Skulptur" atMuenster in 1977- to realize thedrasticchange in recentcuratorialattitudes.Three works n Documenta 7 did, however,engage in an exemplaryway in areflection pon thetransformationfsculptureduringthepast twodecades, in-cludingtherecentpreoccupationwithoutdoorinstallation:Claes Oldenburg's



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Pick-Axe1982), Carl Andre's Steel eneplain1982), and Dan Graham's TwoAd-jacentPavilions1978-82). Ratherthanhavingtofacethe contradictions fplac-ing contemporary culpture n the urban environment, hese worksacceptedtheir onfinementnthesetting fan eighteenth-centurynglishgarden,butatleasttheydid notdestroy hegarden'shistorical rchitectures did thesculpturalinstallations fpast Documenta exhibitions.Oldenburg's work,placed on the bank of the Fulda River, introducedgianttoolofphysical abor into a landscape of eisure. The blue steel axe wastilted t an angle reminiscent f Tatlin's monument nd itsattempt oreplicatethe inclinationoftheglobe. Oldenburg's workescaped questionsof thepara-doxical natureof iconic representation sing large scale steel construction yfunctioningn relationto Kassel's Hercules culpture.Oldenburg confrontedthatwork,"an aristocratic olly n top of a hill,"witha banal contemporaryobjectturned ntoa sculptural ignof classicistmeasure. The dimensionof col-lectivity the essential quality of any public monument in Oldenburg'sworkdepended upon iconicity nd its scale, but it remained external to the

Dan Graham.wo Adjacent avilions.1978-82.



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........ o......... Maow* iAMxsoAk., INiLawrence einer. anyColoredObjectsPlaced SidebySide to Form RowofManyColoredObjects.1978-82. Photos: anielBuren.)

WeinerFor thepast fifteen earsor more Lawrence Weiner has consistently sedlanguage as a medium to respond to the contemporarydesire for aestheticrepresentations. he successofhis linguistic trategies-in his texts,films, ndvideotapes- is evident nthealmosttotaldefeatof the critics' nd historians' t-temptsto impose a secondarydiscourseon the primary anguage (the para-phrasing paragraphswhich accompany Weiner's statements n Rudi Fuchs's1976 catalogue formone of the rare exceptions).Weiner'stripartiteontribu-tion to Documenta 7 consisted of one inscription n the museum's exterior

frieze, hreeon themuseum's nteriorwalls, and one on thepaperwrapperthatbindstogether hetwovolumesof thecatalogue. Laconically, in themanner ofallegoricalinscriptions, hesesum up notonlytheconditionsof theirown ex-istence; but also, metonymically, he conditions,performance, nd mode ofrepresentationfadjacent artobjects; and finally, y logicalextension, hoseofthe exhibition t large. Weiner'sstatement, Many coloredobjectsplaced sidebysidetoform row ofmanycoloredobjects"- painted nupper-case ettersnGermanon thefrieze ftheMuseum Fridericianumbeneathallegoricalsculp-turesrepresentinghilosophy,Architecture, ainting,Sculpture,History, ndAstronomy counterposed itself to the Latin inscriptionon the museum'sportico frieze. The latter is incised into the architecture nd gilded, whileWeiner'sinscription onsistsofbronze-colored etters pplied with automobilelacquer soldby Chrysler oBMW. The particularfunction f thisworkwas therestoration fthereal conditions fdiscoursewhichunderlaytheaccumulation



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4,,......Uofmythical bjectson display nside the museum. Itsplacement n an architec-tural ettingnsured publicmode ofaddress,and itsparticularmaterialpointedto the extensionof the conditionsof imperialismfromeconomic to aestheticmatters.

Women rtistsUndoubtedlyitwas Coosje van Bruggen,thecuratorresponsiblefortheselectionofAmerican artists,who was also responsiblefor the inclusionof anumber of women artistswhose workcontinues and develops the radical im-

plicationsof the major workofthe 1960s and '70s, and offers, herefore, hemost stringent egationofwhat is currently resentedas the new, predomi-nantlymale avant-gardeofpainting.Adequately presentedwithin heexhibi-tion,theworkofDara Birnbaum,JennyHolzer, SherrieLevine, and MarthaRosler would presumablyhave helped a wideraudience to understand hat thepuerile performances fneoexpressionist rtists re, despite theirspectacularsuccess, insufficientroposals for a definition f contemporary ulturalprac-tice. Prominentdisplay was provided instead for the work of Gilbert andGeorge,who seem to have functioned s spiritual eaders for he male curatorsin their nstallation fthemasters. Whateverturnone tookin theexhibition'slabyrinth,ne was confronted ith notherpanel depictingGilbert nd George'sLondon lives ofpetitbourgeois turpitude.And whateverwall space remainedon the main floorsof the centralbuilding had to yield to the German andItalian canvases vyingfor pace, fame,and supremacy.Nevertheless, n spite



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ofdispersaland displacement or, in Levine's case, because of theinstallationin the shadow of an Italian scenario),the women'sworkmanaged to function nits subversivecontextualstrategies.Dara Birnbaum'swork,the onlyvideo workadmitted to Documenta 7,was one of themost successful n the exhibition, ven taking nto account itsjuxtapositionwithpaintingsby Boetti. Its success could be seen in itscapacityto attractand hold the attentionof large groups of predominantlyyoungviewers,whoobviouslyunderstood tsexplicit ommitmentocontemporaneity,a commitmentwhich denies thefalseimposition f thenew aesthetic anctity.They presumablyunderstood,as well, thework'scritical apacityto interferewith he normalperception fthat deologicalenvironment hichhas becomesototalizingn its effectpon everydayife, he hermetic nvironmentftelevision.Clearlythosegazingcrowds n front fBirnbaum's hree-monitoranel installa-tions werenot in awe of thedignity f a high-art iscipline. ndeed, theyweredistracted iewers.But theirdistraction ontainedwithin ttheseeds ofcriticaldistanciation.Theirpleasurein theserially epeatedTV imagery, s well as therecycled ounds of'60s rockmusic,shows thepossibilityfdisruptingelevision'susual totalizingabsorption.With Birnbaum'swork, as with the traditionofBrechtian trategies enerally, heviewersdo not abandon reality hrough ur-

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moil. The potentialfor criticalnegationin pleasurable distanciationpreventsthemfrom ntering spectaclewhose apparent liberationonlyreinforceshereificationf theperceptualprocess.The last-minutenvitation f Martha Rosler to Documenta resulted n afirst-day erformance,WatchwordsftheEighties, hat confronted he attend-ing nternationalrtworldwith very pecific uestion,thatof thepossibilityfculturalresistance nd activist riticism nderthepolitical nd economiccondi-tionsofReagan's America. Her performance,with ts self-consciouslyrtificialincorporation frap talk and graffiti riting,was as specific o contemporaryNew York culture s the "real"graffitiainterLee Quinones, who had been in-vitedbythe curators opaintthewallsofa subterraneanpedestrianpassagewayin Kassel (so much for he curators' ommitmento the ocal dialectofart). Aswe see Roslerbouncingaroundstage ikea street ighter ith ghetto laster, tis apparentthathernotionofauthenticityontradictshe artworld'sdesireto ac-culturate nstantly ny authentic ignof denial and resistance.The authenticitywith which Rosler confronts he viewer s thatof the apparent impossibilityfpoliticalcommitmentnd cultural activismwithinthe framework rovided bythe culturalapparatus and thenecessity f a transformationfpracticewithinthat framework.

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Martha osler.Watchwordsf theEighties. 982.(Photo: ichardaron.)



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JohnKnight.ProjectorDocumenta . 1981-82.(DrawingbyFumikoGoto.)

Writingsn theWallTwo works ntheexhibition eceived ittle ttention ue to their uccess inresisting ubjugationto thecurators'declamatorydisplaystyle.The two artistsdeliberately ituated heirworks n thestairwells f theMuseum Fridericianum,away fromthe battlefield f primeexposure and enforcedcomparisons.Bothworks,thatbyGerman artistLotharBaumgartenand thatbyWestCoast artistJohnKnight,were written ignsthat had been integratednto themuseum'sar-chitecture. anguage was not,however,theirprimary ield f nvestigation, ordid theysubscribe to a reifiednotion of site specificityhat ignoresboth thelinguistic nd the ideologicaldimensions ofmodernistpractice n favor of theperceptualconditionsgeneratedby architecture.John Knight'ssixnearly denticalrelief lements his initialstransformedinto a logo designand coveredwith ixdifferentravelposters--were nstalled nthe six landingsof the museum's two ateralstaircases.The symmetryfthe n-stallation and the repetitionof the elements incorporatedthe strategiesof



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advertisingand commodity display, contradicting he curators' attempttocamouflage the ways in which such strategiesdeterminecontemporary rtpractice nd itsexhibition.Throughthe drasticreduction fthe work'smaterialfeatures and functionsto the sign of individualization and authentication,Knight's nstallationmade still notherconditionofthecontemporaryworks tDocumenta transparent.The restriction fdrawing,or for hatmatter ny otherpictorialmaneu-ver,tothedesignofa logo incorporatinghe artist's ignaturehad alreadybeenproposed nBroodthaers's lasticplaques oftheearly 70s, as well as byLucianoFabro's repeated execution of his signatureand address in neon. Using themode of conceptual tautologythen current,these worksanticipated in theirmaterial structuresheir nherent unction s self-promotionnd theirultimatestatus as commodities. In all of theseworkscontemporary estheticpracticeacknowledges ts sharein theconditionsoftheculture ndustry, speciallyas itis evidenced in an exhibition ike Documenta. Only with the explicit ntegra-tion of theseconditionsdoes it seem thattheworkscan open up a dimension ofcriticalnegationand authenticity.Baumgarten's nscriptionsn dark red classicist etters n thebalustradebeneath the rotundaofthe central staircase listed the names of Indian tribesfrom he Amazon region,whereBaumgartenhad lived and done researchfrom

Lothar aumgarten.onument or he ndianNations f SouthAmerica.1982.. .............lIX

I go,Mni.M..-A. ..................................... Elm,N



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1979 to 1981. The names ofthesetribes,manyof whichare threatenedwith x-tinction,mighthave appeared to the uninformedviewer like a dada soundpoem. In such poems, as Walter Benjamin observed, the rediscovery f thepurelyphoneticdimensionof language liberatesthe word from ts slaverytomeaningand simultaneously edeemsthehistorical nd materialbody of an-guage. Thus, inBaumgarten'scommemorativenscriptionshe historical ver-determinationof the current desire for primaryexpression- the romanticlongingfor the Ursprachef the noble savage that has haunted art since thenineteenth entury-is dialectically elated to the actual historical nd politicalexistenceof those culturesthatare stillperceivedbyWestern ethnocentricismas exoticand primitive, nd thatcontinue to be destroyed n the name ofen-lightenment.

Lawrence einer.Wrapperor ataloguefDocumenta.1982. (Photo: ouise awler.)

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